Seven out of 22 stores failed an alcohol compliance test during an operation held in Alamance County earlier this month.

Officers from Burlington, Elon, Graham and Mebane police departments, along with underage buyers, conducted the operations August 17.

According to Karen Webb from the Alamance Ctitizens for a Drug Free Community, officers sent underage buyers into convenience stores while an undercover officer remained in the store to observe each transaction. Stores at which the clerk didn’t ask to see the underage buyer’s ID or who sold alcohol to the buyer despite not having a valid ID failed the test, and the clerk involved in the sale was charged.

Webb said if the underage buyer left with the alcohol, additional law enforcement officers would go into the store and charge the clerk with selling to an underage person.

“The clerks may have asked for ID or may have not, but the bottom line was the sale,” Webb said.